Andrew Johnston
Quebec
Having pursued your train as far as Quebec,
having just ashes amid which to hunt and peck,
having tried to cash your rubber cheque,
having your swansong around my neck,
having abandoned your call and beck,
I banked instead bitter disaffec-
tion, I contemplated the travel sec-
tion, I set out in praise of a fresh direc-
tion. You’ll find the rest of the trek
in the whole qasida, of which this is just the wreck.
Andrew Johnston is a New Zealand poet who lives in Paris. ‘Quebec’ is from a sequence called ‘Do You Read Me?’, to be published in 2014 in a limited edition by Long Face Press, Paekakariki.